Source: Payfont
PAYFONT, the fledgling Cybersecurity firm that’s fast building an international reputation for its breakthrough personal online security innovation, launched its current round of fundraising on 8th September and today announced it has already received backing from private investors of over 1.1 million pounds.
The figure of £1.1m, raised in such a short time, and part of a wider funding round, is understood to be amongst the highest ever for a Scottish IT start up and sees Payfont now carrying a valuation of £20 million. It indicates growing investor awareness of the global problem and of the returns that can be generated by the innovation Payfont has pioneered.
Chief Executive, Dr David Lanc, formerly a senior executive of the Royal Bank’s Cards Business, said:
“I am delighted with the response from our investors. Their support will help us massively to bring Payfont’s authentication framework to market. We have developed the easiest and safest way in the world for people anywhere to protect their private and personal information online. For the first time everyone can benefit from our patented online protection against Cybercrime and ecommerce fraud.”
Payfont’s dynamic authentication massively overcomes weaknesses in online security, such as used by major card, bank and social network businesses. It’s desperately needed as figures released recently by the UK Card Association indicate online and card not present fraud has increased 23% alone in the first half of 2014.
The company will use this funding to start the build and to market its products globally. World leading Cybersecurity experts at University of Greenwich and independent IP/IT experts have independently evaluated Payfont’s online security model as groundbreaking.
This significant funding follows a recent £100,000 UK innovation award via Scottish Enterprise and accompanies significant international payment industry interest in Payfont. With increasing cybertheft of customer data at organisations like Apple, Adobe, EBay and Target, Payfont’s technology promises to be a hot ticket.
The fundraising was led by fund management veteran Ian Paterson Brown who said: “We had great support from our original investors, who followed through with an increased investment. They are joined on our journey by a new group of private investors who also clearly recognise the Company’s potential. At a valuation of £20 million, they recognise what they are getting for their investment, and its potential.”
Payfont are already in talks with a number of organisations here and in the USA and Europe. Lanc concluded: “Our online protection for people is relevant globally. We will be announcing further developments.”